[41.01] Spectral Variability in NGC 3227 Observed by RXTE

A. Ptak (CMU), T. Yaqoob (NASA/GSFC)

NGC 3227 was observed over an \sim 90 hour period by RXTE
resulting in \sim 36 hours of good exposure time (the
best-sampled light curve in the 2-10 keV bandpass to date).
The flux in the 2-20 keV bandpass was observed to vary
significantly throughout the observation. Spectral
variability is also observed on ks time scales, in the sense
that the spectrum softens as the flux increases. An Fe-K
line at 6.4 keV with an equivalent width of \sim 200 eV is
detected in the time-averaged spectrum, consistent with ASCA
results. The results of detailed analysis of the light
curves and time-resolved spectra will be presented, with
emphasis on to what extent the spectral variability may be
due to occultation events as opposed to intrinsic
variability in the slope of the continuum.

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: ptak@astro.phys.cmu.edu